This is a must see documentary for music fans… I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin, U2\’s The Joshua Tree is like a soundtrack to my awkward adolescent years, and The White Stripes are one of the best bands of the last 10 years, in my humble opinion. Great stuff.

Posted via web from Eric Berlin\’s posterous

Anyway, the webby tie-in here is that I walked over to my laptop and quickly came up with this Wikipedia entry that goes into the incredible and tragic true story that the song is based on:

Dylan’s Desire opens with “Hurricane”, arguably the most popular song on the 1976 release. Named after former middleweight contender Rubin Carter, Dylan had been inspired to write it after reading Carter’s autobiography, The Sixteenth Round, which Carter had sent him “because of his prior commitment to the civil rights struggle.”

Carter and a man named John Artis had been charged with a quadruple murder which occurred in the Lafayette Grill, Paterson, New Jersey in 1966. Widely reported as a racially motivated crime, Carter and Artis were found guilty of committing the murders, and both were sentenced to four consecutive life sentences. In the years that followed, a substantial amount of controversy emerged over the case, ranging from allegations of faulty evidence and questionable eyewitness testimony to an unfair trial. In his autobiography, Carter maintained his innocence, and his story eventually led Dylan to visit him in Rahway State Prison in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey.

I still can’t get over the fact of how easy it’s able to access relevant information on the web. This is the kind of scenario that in a different era would have required calling up a knowledgeable friend or taking the time and effort to go to the library to conduct research. Instead, the gap between inspiration, desire to find out more, and satisfaction of that “information need” (as we say in the biz) is essentially insignificant.

The Internet is absolutely bustling with free services that provide access to music and music information. I’ve also taken a liking to imeem of late, a popular music service that lets you stream lots of songs just for signing up. It also acts like a music recommendation engine, playing songs based on your search terms, but I’ve been using it mostly as my own personal jukebox, simply punching in entries to songs that I’d like to hear as I think of them.

I still think that Pandora is fantastic, but must admit that I don’t really use it much these days.

Overall though my online music life continues to be dominated by Sirius-XM Satellite Radio. I’ll listen to electronia, jazz, classical, or alt rock when I need to concentrate, and The Howard Stern Show or NPR fills in perfectly when I shift over to grunt work.

Back in July, I gushed in an article entitled I’ve fallen in love… with Pandora, noting the killer combination of attributes included the fact that it’s easy, powerful, addictive, and info rich:

This is huge because for something like music – a “product” that’s available in so many places and that will be deployed as background entertainment as I do my online media cultist activities – it has to be super easy and super quick. I’m looking for great music, quickly and easily, and Pandora delivers on that straight off. […]

Pandora confirms yet again that music and the web are made for one another. Music is more popular than ever, of course; it’s the industry that’s getting revolutionized as people are demanding and getting more of what they want when they want it.

I still believe all the things I wrote back in July… but I must admit I haven’t used Pandora in months. The reason? Sirius satellite radio. Maybe it’s unfair to compare a subscription service with a paid one (and of course they’re different in many ways) but I’ve been amazed with the number of ways in which satellite radio has filled multiple grooves and rivulets of my life.

Of course I listen a lot while driving, but the online component is of even greater impact to my life, probably because I’m online such a great percentage of my waking hours anyway!

It hasn’t been all sunshine and roses with Sirius either, I must admit. Back in March, I wrote a piece called Please don’t let the Sirius-XM Radio merger mess things up for us. While the merger hasn’t been a disaster, it’s affected my life in a small but significant way: I had become addicted to the Boombox station, replete with “break beats and electro rock.” I had never been a big electronic music person, but this station really had an impact on my listening habits.

With the new lineup coming out of the merger, Boombox was canceled. The Sirius website claims that the Alt Nation station is an acceptable alternative, but don’t believe the hype; it simply ain’t true. However, as a small note of redemption, the excellent Backspin (old school hip hop) station is being brought back from the dead.

So which is better, Pandora or Sirius-XM? Obviously it depends on your tastes and listening habits and budget. For online listening, both are great in different ways. Perhaps the best part about Satellite radio is that there’s great variety that I don’t have to program myself. But I might speculate that people who are a little bit younger than me will prefer the multiple programming and music recommendation options that a Pandora will give you… for free!

It’s a pretty extraordinary statement, and helps to highlight the immense role that the Internet now plays in promotion, marketing, and commerce, particularly with regard to media.

In terms of music specifically, I grew up during an age where MTV dominated the music world. Artists like Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Prince became planetary-wide idols thanks to the power of music videos that were played on continuous loop on MTV and on other emerging cable television stations. Even during Guns ‘n Roses’ heyday (quite a long time ago now!) the power of music marketing on television was dominant.

In 2008 though, the Internet rules all. Even if Chinese Democracy doesn’t break sales records (and if my vote counts, it won’t so much), the digital revolution rolls on.